VIáVARÍPA

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VAIKUÛÙHA-VIáVARÍPA Vol. III

32. D.Ref.: VK KHAKHNAL #0l-12

Stein: 62 x 42

4 Arme

Sildostecke des K¡rttiksv¡min-Tempels, Khakhnal (Vyas-Tal), Hlmachal

Pradesh.

32.1 DESCRIPTION

This is much eroded, pale grey stone rectangular stele, hipped below a rounded top. The relief shows three-headed ViÀ¸u, standing and supported by the Earth-goddess, in the local style. The hips on the edge of the stele are level with the shoulders of ViÀ¸u, so that the rounded top forms the nimbus. The crown was of the triple-peaked type, with slightly curved sides to the facets, supported by a studded band with round projections (blossoms?) on the sides; the ear-ornaments were rings with pearls around the edges. The head of NarasiÆha appears to the proper right of the central face, that of Var¡ha to the left; these are large profiles, clearly differentiated despite the somewhat crude carving. Long curls fall behind the ears to the shoulders. The vanam¡l¡ loops just above the ankles. The dhot¢ is a simple cloth wrapped around the hips. The front right hand of ViÀ¸u holds a circular lotus, the front left the conch. The rear arms are lowered, the hands resting on the heads of diminutive flanking figures which originally were the weapon-personifications, but their iconography has been almost forgotten; they now appear as a male figure with a short dhot¢ on the proper right (the opposite side to the usual arrangement) having a spoked disk behind his head (CakrapuruÀa), while on the proper left stands Gad¡dev¢ in a long flared skirt. Both flanking figures face squarely to the front and have their hands joined in the aµjalimudr¡. The feet of ViÀ¸u rest upon the hands of a small female figure representing the Earth Goddess represented from the hips upward on the front of the base; the loop of the vanam¡l¡ passes behind her head.

32.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

Although this image retains the old iconography of three-headed VIâÛU standing alone above Bh£dev¢, the style is not ancient. The piece demonstrates that this iconography was preserved locally into the 16th century or later.

Nr. 32: Khakhnal

K¡rttiksv¡min-Tempel

Visnu, Karttiksvamin-Tempel, Khakhnal, Himachal Pradesh

33. D.Ref.: VK PRINI #17-28

Stein: 72 x 38 X 11

4 Arme

Ruckwand des Sanktums, Phahili-N¡g-Tempel, Prini (Vyas-Tal), Himachal Pradesh.

33.1 DESCRIPTION

The village of Prini stands high up on the eastern side of the Upper Vyas Valley. The temple of Phahili N¡g, a centre of the ancient indigenous snake-cult, has a pitched roof and a carved wooden facade, and faces west across the valley. The sanctum has a doorframe carved with serpents and contains an image of áiva with P¡rvat¢ and two images of three-headed ViÀ¸u, the larger of which is worshipped as Phahili N¡g. In the ma¸·apa the rath of the deity is stored under the roof on the north wall.

The main image (Phahili N¡g) is a stone image of standing three-headed ViÀ¸u, now blackened by applications of oil. The sculpture stands on 8 large rectangular base, is pierced around the legs and feet of ViÀ¸u, and has a large circular nimbus. The crown consists of three rounded peaks; more specific detail cannot now be seen due to erosion and the applications of oil. The profiles of NarasiÆha (proper right) and Var¡ha (left) are rendered in rather flat relief to either side of the central ViÀ¸u face; they emerge horizontally and well above the shoulders, in the Kashmiri style, and are not clearly differentiated from each other. There is no sign of the usual long hair hanging beside the face and on to the shoulders. The upav¢ta cord is also absent. The ear- ornaments are rings encircled with pearls. The anatomy of the torso, and solid torque, are treated similarly to the same elements in the North Indian type at Nirth (No.23). The lower garment has a narrow beaded girdle, into which a horned Kashmiri dagger is thrust at the right hip; the dagger is carved, not as a separate element, but as a low relief on the curve of the flank. The dhot¢ has folds on the right thigh, and a narrow swathe of pleats falls between the legs, attached to the right leg. A narrow scarf loops over the upper thighs. The vanam¡l¡ loops just above the ankles. In the front right hand ViÀ¸u holds the stalk of a large round lotus, the blossom being curiously bent backward, and supports a slightly curved conch in the front left. The rear arms are lowered, the hands resting on the heads of CakrapuruÀa (proper right) and Gad¡dev¢ (left); this is the reverse of the usual disposition of these flanking figures. The bust of a very small figure, presumably representing the Earth-goddess, appears on the front of the base at the centre, its head rising between ViÀ¸u's feet, and its hands joined in the aµjalimudr¡.

The sculpture thus combines North Indian and Kashmiri stylistic features, but it was the lconography of Kashmir that was followed. It preserves classic stylistic forms, but such characteristics as the stiffening of the limbs of the weapon-personifications indicates a fairly late date.

33.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

The sculpture represents three-headed standing ViÀ¸u with Kashmiri iconography. It appears to have been made at a time when the influence of Kashmir was still paramount, with North Indian stylistic influence of the Mathura type still evident, and with no specific Pratih¡ra features. It can reasonably be dated to ca. AD 900, and could therefore be identified as the Kashmiri VAIKUÛÙHA.

Nr. 33: Prini

Phahilli-N¡g-Tempel

Vaikuntha, Phahili-Nag-Tempel, Prini, Himachal Pradesh

34. D.Ref.: VK PRINI #29-32

Stein: 44 x 27 x 11.5

4 Arme

Ruckwand des Sanktums (rechts). Phahili-N¡g-Tempel, Prini Vyas-Tal),

Himachal Pradesh.

34.1 DESCRIPTION

This is the second of two three-headed ViÀ¸u sculptures against the ear wall of the Phahili N¡g temple at Prini. It stands to the right of the main image (No.33). It is a rectangular stele with a tenon under the base, bearing a standing figure of three-headed ViÀ¸u cut in very high relief. The sculpture has an archaic appearance, partly because of the very large size of its components, particularly the animal side-heads and the attributes. The ViÀ¸u figure itself, however, is weak and lacking in presence.

The crown consists of three rounded facets, the smaller side-elements overlapping the larger central one; these are ornamented with a foliage design and are supported on a band with incised blossoms. This design appears to be a local copy of Gupta-style crowns. The central face is damaged. The necklace of the ViÀ¸u figure is a small torque, the bracelets appear to be plain. The vanam¡l¡ curves around the outside of the shoulders and loops over the knees. The dhot¢ has regular folds lying horizontally across the thighs and a central vertical strip. The upav¢ta appears to loop, and to continue to the right, at the level of the waistband. (The lowering of the upav¢ta loop below the waistband is in Kashmiri sculpture, a general indicator of date.)

In comparison to the size of the side-heads and attributes, the torso appears remarkably slight. The side-faces represent NarasiÆha on the proper right and Var¡ha on the left. The lion-face, looking forward over the right shoulder, must have been copied directly from Gupta (or early Post-Gupta) period statuary from Mathura. In the same way, the Var¡ha profile is angled upward at forty-five degrees from the skanda-junction, and was equally clearly copied from Gupta-period sculpture from Mathura. The object held in the front right hand (the lotus hand) is damaged. The front left hand supports a large conch which leans to the side. The rear arms are lowered. The rear left hand rests on a short massive mace fashioned like a squared pillar with a pot-shaped base. The rear right hand rests on a very large spoked disk standing on a square pedestal.

34.1.1 CHRONOLOGY

ViÀ¸u figures dated throughout the 5th century which hold the mace and disk in this manner are known from sites across northern India (Udayagiri, Jhusi, Varanasi); indeed, the form of the mace is virtually identical to that held (In the upper right hand) of a very early V¡sudeva image from Mathura which is dated by Hartel to the KuÀ¡¸a period, ca. AD 300 (H. Hartel, "Zur Typologie einer Kaschmir-Skulptur", Elinblicke-Einsichten-Aussichten, Berlin 1933: 95-113). The absence of the Earth-goddess between the feet of ViÀ¸u also suggests a very early date for the prototype: this diminutive figure occurs already in the early 7th century in a three headed ViÀ¸u bronze from the Swat Valley (also in the Museum fur indische Kunst Berlin, No. I.24). The existence of this bronze proves that the Gupta Mathuran concept of the three-headed ViÀ¸u had probability of the image being the result of a local sculptor copying a piece of early Gupta-period statuary from North India is therefore very strong.

The sculpture shows neither Kashmiri nor Pratih¡r; features. On the other hand, it has a multiplicity of Gupta characteristics, and even one KuÀ¡¸a trait. The aesthetic -- especially the proportions and the treatment of the anatomy -- is however not Gupta; but neither is it Kashmiri or Prat¢h¡ra, or even Gandharan, and so it must be considered local. It would be possible to argue that this is a late archaizing piece, were it not for the fact that sculptors in the Western Himalaya could not have copied the Gupta features which appear in this image so faithfully in later times. At least one small sandstone image of easily portable size from 5th-century Mathura representing three-headed ViÀ¸u is known; such pieces could have found their way into the Western Himalaya, where copies such as the present example could have been made. An early date, probably before the conquests from Kashmir led by Lalit¡ditya in the 8th century, therefore has to be attributed to it. (Postel, Neven and Mankodi attribute a 6th- to 7th-century date to a dv¡rap¡la figure and other stray pieces at Nirmand in the adjacent Sutlej Valley: 1985: 60).

34.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

The sculpture represents a local Western Himalayan version of the Gupta-period three-headed VIâÛU created in Mathura in the 5th century. The piece may be dated to the 6th or 7th century. It appears to be one of the earliest Western Himalayan images of three-headed ViÀ¸u so far discovered.

Nr. 34: Prini

Phahill-N¡g-Tempel

Visnu, Phahili-Nag-Tempel, Prini, Himachal Pradesh 

35. D.Ref.: MANDI VK TRILOKANËTHA #02-10

Stein: 156 x 76 x 17

4 Arme

Ruckwand des Ma¸·apa, links vom Sanktumeingang, Trilokan¡tha-Tempel, Mandi (Kangra-Tal), Himachal Pradesh.

35.1 DESCRIPTION

The image does not belong to the Trilokan¡tha temple in the ma¸·apa of which it now stands. It is carved from a block of soft whitish stone and is fairly well preserved except at the base, where it is eroded. The proportions show that it was conceived as an aÀ¶at¡la figure within an ek¡da¿at¡la composition. ViÀ¸u is shown standing in samabha´ga, with four arms holding the standing four emblems in the following disposition: the rear right hand, raised above shoulder level, holds the disk which is shown with an inner rim but no spokes, the corresponding left hand holding the upright conch; the front right hand holds a small lotus at chest level, while the front left is lowered to knee level and rests on the base of an inverted mace. The long vanam¡l¡ is thin where it hangs where it hangs over the god's shoulders and passes through the crook of the front right arm and over the upper forearm on the left, thickening where it sweeps out in a wide arc around the hips and thighs to form a loop just below the knees. Around the neck is carved a simple, double-strand necklace. The girdle hangs low on the hips, curving under the belly, with a fold of cloth between the legs to indicate the lower garment and three tassles suspended from it on each thigh. There is no upav¢ta across the torso. The figure is crowned with a rather narrow kir¢¶a from behind which, more than halfway from the lower rim, a square tab projects on either side. Thick, circular ku¸·alas pierce the lobes of the ears which curve outward to allow the ear-disks to be presented frontally.

From behind the head, at the level of the crown rim, project two faces. On the left side appears the profile head of the Var¡ha, while on the right is carved, almost in the round and with its face slightly raised and turned to the front, a small human head with hair piled in a large chignon bound at the hairline; shallow, vertically incised lines suggest that this was intended to represent a ja¶¡bh¡ra, the piled matted locks which conventionally characterise ¤Ài figures. This combination of side-heads -- those of a man (or woman?) and of the boar avat¡ra -- is unique in the iconography of multi-headed ViÀ¸u.

The structure which surrounds the central figure is unusual and merits a brief description. The front of the plinth, some I0cm in height, provides a straight base for the icon, and about 7.5cm from the extremities a square rebate is cut back to a depth nearly flush with the base of the back-slab above. This device ensures that the deity stands out from the background; there are no mouldings to suggest its architectural origins. The projection is backed by a low wall of equal length, which rises to height of about 15cm to end behind the calves of the ViÀ¸u figure; this uncut portion may have been left to strengthen the base of the main image within its frame. An impression of flanking pillars was created by piercing the stone from the top of the low 'wall' reinforcement at the back of the plinth as far up as the elbows of ViÀ¸u. Two holes are roughly cut through the block beneath the side-heads; they serve no artistic purpose but are located at a suitable height to permit bolts to be knocked through into a masonry backing and so prevent the image toppling forward. Each pillar is provided with two narrow steps as bases for the small figures which appear on the front. These false pillars, as noted above, end at the waist level of ViÀ¸u, but their straight outer edges continue to a height of 117cm, somewhat higher than the main figure. From this point, but inset about 5cm and so giving a hipped outline to the stele, the two sides curve inward without forming a complete arc, meeting in a rather pointed apex. The background against which ViÀ¸u is represented thus appears to be a late derivation from a makatora¸a (the uprights being suggested, but without the vy¡la's, and the horizontal bar terminating in makara-heads being omitted) standing on a moulded plinth (the plain base with the corner rebates) and surmounted by a large nimbus (the pointed arch). The nimbus is here reduced to a small ring imprinted with a lotus design behind the crown; the side-heads project beyond it.

At the centre of the plinth, beneath the feet of the god, a small standing figure is carved in low relief. Although severely eroded, it evidently has four arms, two lowered with the hands at hip level, and the other two raised to support the feet of ViÀ¸u, between which the head of this diminutive figure rises. Traces of horizontal projections on either side which appear to have been stiff, formal representations of wings, and a thickening of the legs which terminate in claw-like feet, suggest that this is a depiction of Garu·a, in the original perhaps holding the am¤takala¿a between his front hands.

A better preserved, small male figure stands on the projecting portion of the plinth to the right of ViÀ¸u. With a tall, ornate ja¶¡bh¡ra and a long tri¿£la held upright in the right hand, this is evidently a two-armed representation of áiva. The corresponding space on the left is occupied only by the head of the mace. Above the rebate in the plinth at either end, on the front of the false pillars and at the same level as áiva, are carved two standing female figures who may represent the consorts of ViÀ¸u, LakÀm¢ to his right adjacent to áiva and holding in her right hand a long-stemmed lotus, while the figure beside the mace may be PuÀ¶i. Above these goddesses, a male figure stands on either side facing inward and presenting a garland.

On a level with the waist of ViÀ¸u, immediately above the two male attendants, a flying figure appears on either side, facing outward and holding a long streaming scarf in a loop overhead. These figures seem intended to mark a definite boundary between the sculpture below and above them. The baseline on which they are represented is half the height of the total composition and defines the upper limit of the piercing of the sculpture; whole figures appear below them, only heads are seen above.

The remainder of the back-slab is edged with human heads. There are six on either side above each flying figure, facing the front and continuing to the top of the vertical sides of the composition, where there is a definite break in their continuity, forming the hip in the outline; from the inner side of each topmost head, six more heads line the arcs of the upper margin on either side, facing obliquely upward and outward, to be seen in profile. At the apex, a single head faces the front. Each of these 25 heads is similar in appearance to the human head projecting from behind the central face of ViÀ¸u.

Upon the surface of the stele thus enclosed, between the apical head and the top of ViÀ¸u's lotus-halo, appears in high relief the head of a horse facing the front; the base of this head touches the rim of the nimbus below it. The remainder of the surface has been roughened with a chisel, and some engraved lines can be detected which appear to represent flames running in a curve from behind the disk on the right and the conch on the left to the horse-head at the centre. These suggest that the arched area between the rim of the nimbus and the rows of heads, above the heads and raised attributes of ViÀ¸u, was to have been treated, perhaps with a thin layer of plaster, and painted.

The most-immediate connecting link between North Indian Vi¿var£pa lconography and this image at Mandi is the sculpture of Vi¿var£pa at Bajaura (see above, No.26). Above the crown of the Bajaura Vi¿var£pa, Hayagr¢va emerges as a theriomorphic figure: the horse rests its head and fore-hooves on the top surface of the crown in such a way that one imagines the animal rearing behind it; this appears to be the origin of the horse-head, its base resting on the rim of ViÀ¸u's halo, in the Mandi sculpture. In both the Bajaura and the Mandi sculptures, the marginal profile heads converge on a single, forward-facing, slightly larger head at the highest point.

The faces on the periphery of the Mandi stele and the emanating human side-head are of similar appearance; in North Indian Vi¿var£pa iconography the marginal faces represent the AÀ¶a-Bhairavas. In the Mandi sculpture, therefore, the marginal faces presumably still represent the Bhairavas, though they are numerically too many, and the human side-head of ViÀ¸u is most probably that of the Bhairava aspect of áiva.

Multi-headed ViÀ¸u with a Bhairava side-head should indicate a Harihara form; and such an icon is indeed known from Kashmir, namely the unique 9th-century sculpture in the Museum f3r Indische Kunst Berlin (No. MIK I.58351, which has the boar face on the left and that of Bhairava on the right of the divided head of áiva-ViÀ¸u, along with the trident-personification at the base beneath one of the deity's right hands. At Mandi, too, the human face on the right is complemented by a figure holding a trident on the right side of the plinth. In terms of existing sculptures this kind of Harihara image is the only known art-historical connection which would go some way to explaining the presence of both the human side-head and the áaiva plinth-figure in the right half of the Mandi image. Another source, much closer to Mandi, is the Vaidyan¡tha temple at Baijnath, where a seated Harihara occupies the main niche on the northwest corner (see below, No.36). There are many other differences in the iconography apart from the seated posture, but the side-heads heads are the same: Var¡ha to the left of the split áiva-ViÀ¸u face in the centre, and Bhairava to the right. The concept of Harihara in which the Hari or ViÀ¸u half is represented by the left side of three-headed ViÀ¸u with the boar's head was thus a major deity at Baijnath in the Kangra Valley as late as the 11th century; the Mandi image is no doubt in part a magnified version of this combined god. The apparent iconographical confusion at Mandi (for the main deity here holds exclusively VaiÀ¸ava emblems) evidently resulted from a late attempt to combine the two principal gods in a single icon which was intended to represent, not Harihara, but the ferocious omniform god Vi¿var£pa, incorporating a áiva-Bhairava element while not losing sight of his predominantly VaiÀ¸ava character.

This sculpture at Mandi evidently represents a late experiment, combining inherited iconographies from North India, Kashmir and, more locally, the vyas Valley itself, probably together with painted figures and emblems on the upper part of the stele, to produce a unique version of Vi¿var£pa. The style suggests a date between the 13th and 15th centuries.

35.2 PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION

The image is one of the latest known sculptural versions of VIáVARÍPA, produced in the Kangra Valley in this form through a combination of North Indian, Kashmiri, and Himachali iconographies and incorporating the concept of Harihara, of ViÀ¸u combined with áiva. It is to be approximately dated to the 13th or 14th century.

Nr. 35: Mandi

Trilokan¡tha-Tempel

Visvarupa, Trilokanatha-Tempel, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

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